Friday, November 1, 2013

I love this one-pot chicken recipe by Jamie Oliver, but because of the long cooking hours I have only done it twice on weekend since I come across it earlier in June.

Even though the chicken is boiled then baked in milk, you will not taste it as the lemon zest breaks up the milk, curdling it and giving it a faint taste of the lemon that is absolutely appetizing.

When I have to cook for 5 adults and a child on a short notice, I decided to make this dish the 2nd time, throwing in some new potatoes so DinoBoy can eat it and served the chicken with spaghetti. The chicken was cleaned up in no time and every one loved it a lot, rubbing their happy bellies.

I am going to add some carrots and broccoli the next time I am making this dish again.

Look at the foaming butter frying the chicken, what a beautiful sight!

I was enjoying the nice butter aroma in the kitchen that I over browned the chicken. The chicken skin was a little bit charred after being baked in the oven. So the 2nd time when I did this, I make sure that I watch the chicken carefully and brown it just right, the baked chicken looked so much prettier and more presentable.

Don't be fooled by the skin that looks dry and *ahem* burnt, the meat is really very tender and juicy. It is so soft that you can simply serve the whole chicken in the pot and just pull the meat off with your hands, I guarantee you that this is the best way to enjoy this dish. Lip smacking, finger licking good, ending with oily mouth and hands. YUM!

Ingredients

* 1 whole chicken

* Kosher salt (in this case I used sea salt)

* ground black pepper

* 2 tablespoon unsalted butter

* 2 cups milk

* Zest of 2 lemons

* 10 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly smashed

* ½ cinnamon stick

* 5 to 8 large sage leaves

* 2 sprigs rosemary or 1 - 2 teaspoon of dried rosemary

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190°C, find a snug-fitting oven-safe pot for the chicken.

2. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season generously with kosher salt/sea salt and black pepper, including inside the cavity.

3. Place oven-safe pot or pan over the stove and turn on to high heat. Add butter; when it melts and foams, add chicken.

4. Brown chicken over high heat 10 minutes, using tongs to turn over.

5. When chicken is evenly golden brown, remove from the pot and pour away the oil left in the pot. This will leave you with tasty sticky goodness at the bottom of the pan which will give you a lovely caramel flavour later on.

6. Return the chicken breast side down in pot and pour in milk. Bring to a simmer, then turn off heat.

7. Add the lemon zest, garlic cloves, cinnamon, sage, and rosemary to the pot. The lemon zest will sort of split the milk, making a sauce, which is absolutely fantastic.

8. Place the pot in the oven and bake for 30 - 45mins

9. Serve, spooning sauce from pan over meat.

~ ~ ~

This linky is for anything that is FOOD related. It could be a restaurant you visited recently, meals you cook with your family or for your family or recipes you wish to share with every one.